Early Monday, September 11, Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr., 23, was arrested for assault by strangulation. The victim turned out to be his girlfriend, Kaiser Gondrezick, a basketball player who previously played in the WNBA for the Indiana Fever.
It all happened in a hotel in downtown New York. According to the police report, Porter punched Kaiser in her face several times and strangled her, stopping only when the girl, covered in blood, managed to run out of the room and into the hallway.
When emergency services arrived at the scene, the victim complained of pain, difficulty breathing, as well as redness and bruising in the neck area. Kaiser was taken to the hospital, where she was later diagnosed with a fractured cervical vertebra and a cut above her right eye.
Upon investigating the circumstances, it was discovered that this was not the first time Gondrezick had been forced to contact the police due to Porter’s behavior. Manhattan prosecutors said he intentionally rammed his girlfriend’s car into her car in an earlier incident.
Kevin Porter
Photo: Elsa/Getty Images
Porter’s retrial is scheduled for October 16. That day, Houston will hold a preseason meeting with San Antonio, in which the player is almost guaranteed not to participate. He hasn’t been officially suspended from Rockets games, at least not yet. Under NBA rules, the team cannot discipline him until the league completes its own investigation. However, Commissioner Adam Silver has the authority to place Porter on “administrative leave” for an extended period.
This is also not the first time a basketball player has gotten into trouble with both the police and the NBA. In 2020, he was involved in a single accident and officers arriving at the scene found a loaded gun and cannabis in his car. This happened a few months before Porter was fired from Cleveland. The reason is that the point guard created a scandal before the general director of the Cavaliers because the locker in his locker room was given to a new player on the team.
In April 2021, already with the Rockets, Porter was fined $50,000 for violating coronavirus protocol after visiting a strip club in Miami. And in January 2022, the player was suspended for one game because he “lost his temper” and started a conflict with Christian Wood during halftime of the game against Denver.
However, Porter’s domestic violence incident is much more serious than any of the previous ones. It could result not only in suspension from the NBA, but also in actual criminal punishment.
The basketball community, of course, perceived the incident very negatively. Many believe Porter should be banned for life. But the way the league “handled” a similar situation with Miles Bridges casts doubt on the likelihood of such an outcome.
A year ago, Bridges was charged with domestic violence, including child abuse and battery against the boy’s mother. The victim then shared photos of the injuries Bridges inflicted on her and claimed that in addition to the concussion, he broke her nose and wrist, and also ruptured her eardrum.
Bridges avoided jail time, but was sentenced to three years of probation. But the punishment he received from the NBA turned out to be surprisingly light. He was suspended for 30 games without pay, but since the player did not sign a contract for the 2022/2023 season, 20 of those League games were considered completed. So it turns out that for a serious act of domestic violence, Bridges was suspended for only 10 meetings.
Kevin Porter
Photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
But this is not the only recent incident caused by NBA players. Last year, Rajon Rondo allegedly threatened the mother of his children with a gun and received no punishment. Jackson Hayes received three years of probation and 450 hours of community service for domestic violence last summer, but the Lakers signed him as a free agent anyway.
Unsurprisingly, ordinary social media users do not expect a different outcome in the Porter case:
“He should go to jail and be banned from the NBA, but after what happened with Miles Bridges, I think he’ll be on the court in two months.”
“They gave him too many opportunities. “It would be better for him to never set foot on an NBA court again, but who knows what’s going on in this league.”
“I would have said it was over… But I thought the same thing about Bridges, now what? The League must start taking violence against women and children more seriously. There is no reason why he and Miles Bridges should be allowed to enter the NBA. “So fuck Bridges, fuck Kevin Porter, and fuck Adam Silver.”
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But there is one thing that may force the league to take Porter’s situation seriously. The victim is a WNBA basketball player, fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft. Yes, she is not currently an active player, but last year Kaiser participated in the Chicago Sky training camp. And if the NBA doesn’t pay Porter for the damage he caused to her health, it could cause quite a stir in the women’s league.
Furthermore, Kevin’s talent, image and popularity do not match the level of a player the NBA would defend no matter what. His dismissal will not in any way affect the financial well-being of the organization, will not cost it millions of dollars and, moreover, can be a real way to rehabilitate oneself for his insufficiently strict approach to the Bridges case.
In any case, the final decision on Porter will have to wait, and for quite some time. In Bridges’ case, the NBA’s investigation took months. Ja Morant has been facing punishment for the firearms incident for weeks. But we can already say that the Houston defender will probably miss the start of the next 2023/2024 season.
